Who Killed Sir Harry Oakes?

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This film follows many of the facts of the scandal. Harry Oakes did oppose casino gambling development, and currency smuggling was likely happening. The Bahamas was a notorious tax haven. Some of this smuggling may have even involved the Nazi party; the FBI suspected a close friend of the Duke with being a Nazi agent. In fact, Winston Churchill, being aware of Edward's pro-Nazi sentiments, sent him away in 1940 to be the governor of the Bahamas. The royal couple had arrived in the Bahamas in August 1940 as virtual exiles, mistrusted by the British government and the Royal Family alike because of their rumoured Nazi sympathies. Another, proposed by Nassau newspaper editor John Marquis, was that the murder was orchestrated to prevent Oakes from moving his money off the island and that the Duke of Windsor was complicit in a cover-up by hiring corrupt detectives.

a b King of Fools, by John Parker (author), St. Martin's Press, 1988; Who Killed Sir Harry Oakes, by Marshall Houts, 1976. Just off camera in this saga: A developer whose name is intertwined with Lake Park. And the former king of England, exiled to the Bahamas after he gave up his throne for the American divorcee whose uncle’s hunting lodge stood within shouting distance of Lake Okeechobee. Oakes graduated from Foxcroft Academy in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, founded in 1823, three years after statehood, one of the very few public high school "academies" left in Maine. The present campus is on the former Oakes farm on outer Main Street on the way to Sangerville, his birthplace.The richest man in the Bahamas (if not the whole Empire) was Sir Harry Oakes, who earned his fortune from gold prospecting and spent the rest of his life avoiding the tax man. He was found murdered in the morning of 8 July 1943, having been killed sometime after midnight during a summer thunderstorm. His body, bearing four lethal head wounds and burns from the fire, was discovered the next morning by his close friend and houseguest, Harold Christie, an influential Bahamian estate agent. Do grown men usually do that? Do they rush into each-other’s bedrooms at the first sign of daylight, to wake each other up, like school girls, after a sleepover? Over the years, there were several leads: a Bahamian crime kingpin, a mysterious blonde, a political operative, or various combinations. A crooked business partner about to be exposed. A jealous husband who mistook Harry for his wife’s lover. Or someone seeking riches in gold the tycoon had hidden away somewhere in the Bahamas. Sir Harry Oakes, 1st Baronet (23 December 1874 – 7 July 1943) was a British gold mine owner, entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist. He earned his fortune in Canada and moved to the Bahamas in the 1930s for tax purposes. Though American by birth, he became a British citizen and was granted the hereditary title of baronet in 1939.

Miss Betty Renner, a Washington Lawyer, was investigating the murder of Harry Oakes which had occurred seven years before on 7th July 1943. Renner was department of justice lawyer. Renner had become obsessed with Oakes murder. The Duke first thought Harry had killed himself. Sir Harry had been riding around his golf course recently on a bulldozer, toppling trees. He seemed more than usually unhinged. The Duke pondered: Eunice wanted to leave the Bahamas, so perhaps Harry had gone insane.

Nancy had learned of her father’s death when she was on her way from Miami to Martha Graham’s dance studio in Bennington, Vt. Her friend Merce Cunningham gave her the news. Nancy changed her plans and flew to Bar Harbor to join her mother at the funeral. The Ballot Party is credited for playing a massive role in the establishment of the multiracial Government High School in 1925.

In 1935, he announced he was leaving Canada to become a citizen of the Bahamas, which was still part of the UK, but with no income tax. The uproar in Canada was instantaneous as its richest citizen decamped. Had he known his fate in the Caribbean, he might have stayed in Canada. Who Murdered Harry Oakes?The Duke’s methods of bringing about justice came under scrutiny; one British civil servant cabled to London: “The Governor is at some pains to explain why he took the rather unusual step of calling in men from outside, which I must confess I don’t very much like. But in the circs [sic] I will not question his judgement.” Everyone was heterosexual. Homosexuality didn’t exist in the social register of the upper or lower classes of The Bahamas. There’s a one-minute plus Reuters video of the de Marigny trial posted on YouTube, which underscores the fascination so many continue to have for Oakes.

His story has appeared in film and books, including Bar Harbor Babylon, by New England Historical Society writers Leslie and Dan Landrigan. This post is an excerpt from that book. Murdered Midas: A Millionaire, His Gold Mine, and a Strange Death on an Island Paradise, by Charlotte Gray, Toronto, HarperCollins, 2019 ISBN 9781443449342 De Marigny was unpopular with the locals, but the “unsavoury group of people” de Marigny consorted with wished to see him acquitted, and if there was any suspicion of justice not being done, chaos would ensue.Harold Christie would tell police, and testify in court, that he, Oakes and other house guests dined, drank, and played tennis and parlor games until about 11 p.m. Christie said he remained in Oakes’ bedroom until the host had donned pajamas, then retired to his own room, where he read a magazine for a half hour, then went to sleep. He said he left Oakes in bed, reading a newspaper. A DIFFERENT TAKE ON THE HARRY OAKES MURDER – Were Harry Oakes and Harold Christie Lovers? “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) A Canadian author delves very deeply into the life and death of Harry Oakes, in this most recently published book; Toronto, 2019, by HarperCollins. After a two-hour deliberation, he was acquitted, albeit with a strange codicil: the jury suggested that he be deported from the Bahamas immediately.